Romanian to English Translation

This direction is used when a Romanian document has to be put before an English-speaking country. The typical applicant studied or worked in Romania and is now applying to a university, an employer or an immigration authority in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada or Australia. The document carries the Romanian administrative order, while the authority that will read it assesses it against Anglo-Saxon culture.

Concrete examples make the direction clear: a student applying for a master’s degree in the United States with a Romanian university diploma, the documents of a specialist who worked in Romania and then moved to the United Kingdom, the civil registry records of a family moving to Canada. What they have in common is that the document makes sense within the Romanian system but the receiving side does not recognise that context directly.

Education and work files form the backbone of demand; Romania’s broad labour mobility, above all towards the United Kingdom, keeps professional and civil registry documents in constant demand in this direction. The second group is made up of family documents.

The shared difficulty with these documents is that the Romanian administrative reality is not directly recognisable to an English-speaking authority, and that the Romance character of the language creates a risk of false friends.

Because of the large Romanian community in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries, a file in this direction is often made up of several documents; diplomas, civil registry records and professional documents are submitted together, and all of them are expected to be translated with the same spelling of the name and consistent terminology. Inconsistent spelling across documents weakens the application.

Romanian institutional abbreviations are not carried into the English text as they stand; they are unpacked and, where necessary, given in brackets in their original form. Otherwise they carry no meaning for the official reading in English.

In professional documents the title and the scope of authority are conveyed by function rather than forced into equivalence with an English counterpart; a professional title matched wrongly can leave the recognition process in the receiving country open to dispute.

Technical matters peculiar to Romanian into English

Romanian uses the Latin alphabet, but it has letters of its own carrying diacritics (ă, â, î, ș, ț); in personal and place names these are carried across in line with the spelling in the passport, and consistency is maintained when they are reduced to English letters. Place names are not translated but given in their original spelling.

Because Romanian is a Romance language, administrative terms of Latin origin carry a risk of false friends in English; terms are chosen by function rather than by resemblance. Trusting the similar-looking English word can shift the institutional meaning.

Institutional names are rendered according to their function; the CNP (personal numerical code) is an identity number and is not confused with the date of birth. The grading system (1–10) is not equated with an English counterpart but explained, and it is stated that 10 is the highest mark.

The seal and registration details on the document are preserved in place; registry numbers are not translated but given with a reference to the record. Because dates are given in day-month-year order, the month is written out in words.

Since the Romanian diploma system rests on the European higher education framework, the credit and level information in the transcript is preserved openly; the recognition body assesses on the basis of that data.

Romanian documents may carry the names of the parents as well as the forename and surname; these details are not removed in the English translation but carried across separately. The passport spelling of names is preserved across every document.

Since the decimal separator in figures is a comma, the notation is adapted while the value is preserved in the move into English; amounts are not converted and the currency is stated as it stands.

Which documents call for this direction

• Diplomas, the foaie matricolă (transcript of marks) and course descriptions
• Birth, marriage and civil registry records
• Employment, service and criminal record (cazier judiciar) documents
• Bank and income documents
• Professional qualification documents

Education and work files form the backbone of demand; it is stated openly that the grading scale runs out of 10. The passport spelling of names is preserved across every document.

In family documents the names of the parents and the relationships between relatives are set out openly. In commercial documents the company name and registry details are carried across in their original form.

Chain of certification

Because the target is an English-speaking country, the sworn translator system does not come into play: the United States and the United Kingdom ask for a signed statement of accuracy, Canada for a translator registered with a provincial association or an affidavit, Australia for NAATI accreditation. A document arriving from Romania is expected to carry an apostille.

For these differing expectations, look at the certification regime of the target country and the requirements for the document type. Tell us the spelling of the name in the passport and the receiving institution before you send the document.

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The information below is offered as guidance; in this language pair the level of certification is determined by the receiving institution. Confirming the current requirement before applying saves time.